Chamber bit woes!

[guirguispipes]

Hey, all

How has your experience been with Ken Lamb's Spoon and S&D bits and Trent Rudat's S&D bits?

I recently bought two 3/4" S&D bits from Trent. One was a round point and the other conical. I was really excited when I receievd them... until I looked them over carefully. Trent told me they were going to be precision ground, but they didn't look very precisely ground to me. Furthermore the bit that was supposed to be conical was barely distinguishable from the rounded bit. I thought I would give both of them a fair shot anyway. The rounded one drilled OK, but still had a decent amount of chatter; even more so than my pimo spade bits. The conical bit very noisy, and I experienced A LOT of chatter. I am drilling at 900 RPM by the way. I have never really had any drilling problems with my modified spade bits.

Is it me that may be doing something wrong?

Needless to say I am a bit dissappointed. I have never tried Ken Lamb's S&D bits or spoon bits. Has anyone had experience with those? I am wary of buying now because Ken's bits are even more expensive than Trent's. I really appreciate any feedback or help on this.

[Massis]

are you a bit dissapointed?

Seriously though, I have no experience with S&D's or Lamb's spoon bits, I still use PIMO's and JHlowe's grounded spade bits and am quite pleased with them so far...

[d.huber]

No experience with any of those bits, but I'd recommend slowing down your RPM when you drill. Not certain, but that may improve your results.

[guirguispipes]

are you a bit dissapointed?

Hahaha, pun intended. I didn't even catch that.

[wmolaw]

I'll let one of the big boys chime in, but 900 seems just a tad fast, but shouldn't result in that sort of chatter, especially if you are not experiencing the same with the spade bits.

[KurtHuhn]

I have absolutely no experience with either Ken or Trent's bits. That said, 900 RPM is faster than I wold feel comfortable drilling. Can you go any lower? Are you drilling on a lathe, a drill press, or something else?

I use my own reshaped S&D bits and never have a problem with chatter.

[guirguispipes]

That said, 900 RPM is faster than I wold feel comfortable drilling. Can you go any lower? Are you drilling on a lathe, a drill press, or something else?

I am drilling on a drill press. The next lowest setting it has is 500 RPM. Is that a reasonable speed? I bought the S&D bits so that I could start drilling on my lathe. I had heard that it isnt very wise to drill on a lathe with soade bits. Problem is I have no idea what the different RPMs of my lathe are.

Thanks for the help.

[sam a]

500 RPM is a reasonable speed. and drilling on a lathe with spade bits should be fine... as long as you aren't freehand drilling.

[wmolaw]

That said, 900 RPM is faster than I wold feel comfortable drilling. Can you go any lower? Are you drilling on a lathe, a drill press, or something else?

I am drilling on a drill press. The next lowest setting it has is 500 RPM. Is that a reasonable speed? I bought the S&D bits so that I could start drilling on my lathe. I had heard that it isnt very wise to drill on a lathe with soade bits. Problem is I have no idea what the different RPMs of my lathe are.

Thanks for the help.

I drill with spade bits on the lathe all the time, no issue, none whatsoever. In fact I find they drill better on the lathe than they do in the press.

As to the RPM's your lathe is turning at, there has to be some indicator. Is it completely variable speed? Is it a metal lathe, wood lathe? If a wood lather and completely variable speed there should be an indicator, if not then there should be designations as to the speed which each pulley combination turns at.

Worse comes to worse, buy one of these.

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/MMTACH.html

It's a digital tachometer which can show you the speed of your lathe as it's turning.

[PhilipMarc]

I've had very bad experience drilling with the spade bits on the lathe, although recently I read some posts about cutting down the shank to make it more stout. I haven't tried that yet.

I've read some other posts from some of the more experienced guys on the forum that said profiled S&D bits are kind of a waste of money, since they cost about 20X as much as spade bits, but don't cut 20X better. I'm not suggesting you should give up on them, but maybe going from spade bits to spoon bits would give you a more drastic improvement.

Since I have no money, I'm considering sharpening the edges of a teaspoon, sticking it in my drill press and trying that out. I don't think it will chatter.

[wdteipen]

You're drilling too fast. 900 rpms is going to produce a lot of chatter with any bit I've used. You should drill at around 500 rpms at the most. I ground my own S&D bits but got bad results until Trent Rudat fixed them for me. He showed me how to properly cut the relief and mine drill perfectly now. Trent does good work and if you slow them down and you still have problems, I'm certain he will take care of you. He's a good guy like that. Before I switched to S&D bits, I used spade bits with the shanks cut short and I drilled on the lathe and drill press with no problems. In my experience, S&D bits are far superior to spade bits and spoon bits are far superior to S&D bits. It's also important with any of the three bits to start them on center and keep them centered while drilling. Otherwise, you will get chatter. You should start with a pilot hole or at least a center finder to get the bit started on center then advance slowly to keep the bit from walking.

[SimeonTurner]

I use a lamb bit that is great. I set my lathe at about 450 rpms for it.

[Charl]

I drill at 400rpm, use spade and S&D bits with no problem. S&D is of course better than spade bits, but helluva expensive new. I've found some old ones at the fleamarket that I ground down.

[PremalChheda]

I drill at 1000 rpm on a Jet BD920 and use ground spade bits. It cuts like butter with no chatter at all. The sides have to be ground fairly close with a relief for it to cut right. The tailstock should also be locked down when drilling at high speeds. When I first started, my spade bits were not ground properly and I had all sorts of problems. They must be very sharp and shaped correctly. It took me about 10 re-shapes to get it right, but now it is very easy to make one, and they can be quickly sharpened by hand.

I have a set of the Lamb spoon bits. I cannot get them to cut very well and It feels a little dangerous using them.

I have heard very good things about profiled S&D bits from Abe Herbaugh and a few others. I think Abe has some from Ken Lamb. He compared using my spade bits to his S&D and said the S&D cuts faster, but both have a smooth feel to them.